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'But then we started asking for donations and the number of people following Ariel's case soared.'

Pereira, who cares for Ariel at her home, said that for unknown reasons his white blood cells were attacking his healthy cells due to a degenerative disease affecting his medulla.

This is a portion of the brainstem involved in motor functions.

Routine: Vet Livia Pereira took Aerial home to care for him full-time. However, today it was revealed he has died

Kindness: Vet Livia Pereira snuggles in to paralysed lion Ariel

She believed Ariel's symptoms were similar to those of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Guillain-Barre syndrome - an autoimmune disorder that can cause paralysis.

A team of Israeli veterinary neurologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who tested Ariel to see what degenerative disease was involved, will publish their results later this month.

Their trip to Brazil was paid for by Graziela Barrette, a Brazilian model living in New York, who had been moved after hearing of Ariel's plight.

Ariel was born in the shelter that Borges and her husband run in the southern city of Maringa, where they care for sick or abandoned animals.

She said: 'He was a perfectly normal and docile lion that slept with me until he was 10-months-old.'

Passed out: Ariel lies on a mattress, propped up by packets of toilet rolls. There had been a large battle to save him

Loving: Vet Livia Pereira kisses paralysed lion Ariel who had lost the use of his legs

But last year, after spending hours leaping and chasing balloons, Ariel started limping. 'I could tell he was in pain,' she added.

Days later he was unable to move his two hind legs and after surgery to remove a herniated disc he lost control of his front legs.

'He was submitted to a battery of tests and medical examinations that failed to show what was wrong with him, so three weeks ago we brought him to Sao Paulo where there are better-equipped veterinary clinics,' she added.

Pereira and Borges said they have received an offer from a Brazilian doctor to perform the blood-cleansing treatment called plasmapheresis on Ariel.

But because the equipment used to perform it must be modified for use on a large animal, it was not clear when that would take place.

Borges added: 'One thing we will never lose is our hope that Ariel will recover and start walking again.'

Video: Ariel on Brazilian TV show SBT after surgery to remove a herniated disc: